


Constellations Rise With Sunsets

by Cant_We_Just_Dance



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: And How Our Lives Are Kinda Insignificant, Are you happy, But YOLO right, Constellations, Fall Gift Exchange 2017, Fluff, Gen, Gods?? kinda???, I, Jamilton - Freeform, M/M, Mentions of War, NOLO, No YOLO, Other, Singing To The Stars, Soulmate AU, Ugh i wrote fluff, and i wrote it, does my suffering bring you j o y, i had a fluff request, no, overly poetic, starlight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 03:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12313143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cant_We_Just_Dance/pseuds/Cant_We_Just_Dance
Summary: Bring me a melody, and I'll shine sing and sayUntil the stars shine in the midst of our dayAnd if you sing the tuneThe travel home will be soonAnd starlight will lead the way





	Constellations Rise With Sunsets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elegantium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elegantium/gifts).



> Ayyyy wattup this is my first gift exchange and I wrote fluff and nearly died????? This was hella fun to write tho, and I had a blast with all the unnecessary metaphors. And yeah the summary is a limerick. Fuckin deal with it.
> 
> Anyways if you liked this then kudos and comment and bookmark and tell your friends and start a religion based on it. Or just chill with me over at @jamisahivemind on tumblr. Or both. There'll be cookies if you do both.
> 
> No there won't.
> 
> I'm sorry I lied about cookies.

Thomas had never particularly liked sunsets.

Something about the way they symbolized the ending, a story coming to a close, and yet found a way to make it seem almost elegant simply seemed to rub him the wrong way, like sandpaper soled shoes. Each step dragging roughness against smooth skin, spilling crimson over the edge with a somehow not quite sharp, stabbing pain. How such a thing could be treasured, looked forward to, or even associated with the pleasantness of a watercolor painting or the soft melody of a song was beyond Thomas’s ability of comprehension. It was almost unfair, in a way. Whenever the skies found themselves to be painted with crimsons and pink tinged with golden hues, others would marvel at the sheer beauty, the ever-lasting glory of the atmosphere that reached so far above them. But not the tall man whose long shadow cast on the ground during sunsets like a small taste of the night sky soon to come. Never the man that never bothered to count the stars in his eyes or the one on his wrist where a soulmark should have been.

James, for one, could never quite comprehend how Thomas could bring himself to despise something that held such beauty. Whenever his taller friend would stare at the sunsets with spite lacing his grimace, James would take him by the hand and help him point out the constellations that were beginning to reveal themselves to those who were willing to inspect close enough. But constellations are nothing more than stars scattered carelessly across the universe by those who had no will of their own, as Thomas was so fond of reminding his friend. Those who searched so very hard for the images in the night sky were fools, as the halo-haired man had long ago concluded, yet never dared speak aloud. Why should one lift their gaze into a sky that refused to stay put, or even display starlight when one most needed them?

If one were to find themselves stranded in the night, no longer dancing amongst the forestry, but instead shivering in fear- where were the stars, then? Certainly not providing the much-needed light that tired eyes ached for as a way to light the path back home. Sunsets would only seal the fate of a lost traveller, proving to them that they were a mere human, and that if the sky is filled with clouds, they would become a mere hunk of meat for any lurking predators.

This was not to say, however, that Thomas despised the nighttime. In fact, his inclinations leaned toward the opposite of such a statement. During the hours before sunrise set upon the world, and long enough after the ever-so dreaded sunsets that he was not put off by the prospect of doing such a thing, Thomas would reach up toward the sky and whisper soft songs to the stars that stared down at him with innocent eyes as if he were a particularly foolish individual, spending his time singing to the stars as if he were to love one them dearly. And the stars were only partially incorrect in that regard.

The world was midnight- and nothing more, nothing less- when Thomas sang, and his voice, although dusky and low, rang out clear, carrying up to the galaxies so far away without trouble. Like the glass window panes of an ancient home, the clearness dripping down through itself and yet still providing a glimpse of the outside. Eyes are, after all, the windows to the soul, but with the stars in his eyes, he would need his voice to supply the windows, now wouldn’t he? Starlight danced on the refractions on Thomas’s tightly coiled curls of dark hair as if it were the sky itself, twinkling in time with each beat of his heart, each beat of his tones. If one leaned against his broad chest, resting their head on his shoulder gently enough, such light twinkling of stars might have even been audible to such undeservingly human ones.

One night, only a mere few hours before the sunrise would find its way into Thomas’s eyes, he heard the unsteady sound of soft footsteps behind him. Turning around and shifting his gaze from the sky to the figure approaching slowly, his eyes widened in shock. Standing before him was a speck of starlight, having fallen from the sky and leaving a small crater in the place where he had made contact with the Earth. Hair flowed from his head dark like a piece of sky had fallen along with him, framing the face that glowed with near-golden eternal beauty that did nothing but accentuate the wideness of shock in his eyes. Thomas found himself forced to squint slightly to accommodate the sudden light that was only two small steps away from him.

The starlight reached out uneasily, its face displaying an expression of unsurety, as if it did not know where or even when it was at such a moment as they found themselves in. Thomas’s hand reached forward and gently grasped the one that the starlight offered him, pulling him the ever so slightest bit closer. Starlight stepped toward him, with a stride that was less cautious, contained less fear, than the ones it had been taking before. 

In the span of only a mere few seconds, Thomas found himself just a few inches away from the fallen starlight. He gazed into the dark eyes before him, wide with naivety and shining with the miniscule, yet familiar, glint of fear. Thomas was well aware that his own eyes were sure to be shining with such a glint as well, but he did his best to push those thoughts to the very back of his mind as the starlight spoke with a diminutive, almost-too-quiet voice.

“Are you the man that sings to us?” The starlight asked, each words seemingly illuminated although such a thing was most definitely impossible. And yet, there it was, staring Thomas directly in the eyes and still holding onto his hand with a soft grip and the most blindingly trusting smile he’s ever seen. As if the starlight already knew exactly who he was. As if he already meant something to the soul of this bit of fallen midnight.

“Whatever do you mean?” Thomas questioned, although he knew precisely what the starlight was speaking of. Although he felt the fear in his heart coil far tighter and grow nearly double in size, he made no effort to let go of the starlight’s hand, instead opting- against his better instincts- to intertwine their fingers. “I know of no man who sings to the stars.”

“Then you must not know of yourself, sir,” Starlight spoke quietly, brows furrowing in the growing hints of confusion within himself. “Your voice carries the same tone as that of the man that sings to us each midnight. His voice is clear, yet rumbles like the thunder we have found solace in during the winters night we do not fall to the Earth in snow. He always stands in this very spot, and leaves before the sun can rise and cast light upon his features. I have always found such a thing peculiar; why do you always leave before sunrise?”

“I still haven’t the faintest idea what you are speaking of, or even what you are,” Thomas objected, still firmly denying any possibility of him being the man that this starlight spoke of. He stepped backwards a slight bit, still not letting go of or even loosening his grip on the starlight’s hand, or reasons clawing at the back of his heart that he could not quite put a name to. “And I find it rather intrusive that you continue to speak of such impossible things, and accuse me of committing acts as foolish as the ones you claim to have witnessed.”

“I am starlight, as you clearly already are aware of. And my name, if you wish to make use of it, is Alexander,” He pointed out, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb in small circles against Thomas’s smooth skin. “It is entirely possible that you are not the man I seek, however, you are the only one I see around this part of the valley that has been singing at all in the past few moments we have been speaking. I don’t suppose I shall find another man to sing to me any time soon if I simply abandon you here?”

Thomas’s memories of long nights spent inspecting his wrist quickly flashed through his mind. This was starlight, the starlight he’d been searching for nearly all his life. Of course it had to happen like this- how else was one supposed to encounter a person that was not a person, and instead, a piece of shining brilliance from the sky above? 

But this was impossible.

After all, only humans have soulmarks. For as long as reading has existed, there has been a way to find the one person whose half of a soul completes the half that belongs to you. But stars? Starlight has shone on the world for far longer than humans have known they were residing on such a planet as they did. Stars? Stars did not love. So this- this couldn’t be his soulmate; even worse, it could be his soulmate, and he simply was not the star’s soulmate in return. As such, Thomas simply came to the conclusion that he was not obligated to tell the star his thoughts on soulmates and their links, now was he?

“Well, Alexander, I will have you know that my identity is of no matter to you, and I would most greatly appreciate it if you did in fact leave me to my own devices for the last bit of nighttime that this part of the world has left until sunlight comes along to ruin my view of the sky,” Thomas explained impatiently, narrowing his eyes sullenly at Alexander in a feeble attempt to ignore the glow that seemed to flow with his shoulder-length hair like silent breeze. “Be gone with you, and perhaps we shall not have to begin an argument, which I am sure is not something you would particularly enjoy.”

“You wish for me to leave you alone here at this hour?” Alexander inquired, a hint of playfulness lacing his tone as if it were a chiffon cloak below a dark leather jacket. Gently, he brought his and Thomas’s intertwined hands up for the two of them to gaze upon. “If such a claim is true, then please do explain to me why you have yet to let go of my hand? Go on, take however much time you need to make me understand the intention behind your actions. I have all the time in the world to listen to your words as I have your melodies.”

Thomas scowled in shock and a bit of resentment that this mere bit of starlight, not even powerful enough to become part of a constellation, had outsmarted him, even just a bit. Quickly, he removed his hand from Alexander’s, cold air surrounding it and sending the smallest lightning shiver down his spine in the unexpected, sudden chill.

“You have no right to speak such words to someone such as myself- have you no idea who I am?” Thomas interrogated, voice sharp like a newly formed sword, cutting through the air with each breath. 

“I have every idea ever thought about the man you are,” Alexander replied slowly, his voice a stark contrast to that of Thomas’s. “You are the man who sings to the stars every night, and leaves before the sunrise. You are the man that scowls at the pastel colors brought by sunsets each evening. And you are the man that clearly has no idea who I am. Now isn’t that a wonderful thought? You seemed so sure that I was ignorant as to your identity, when our situation is quite the opposite. If I were not gazing upon such a spiteful expression as yours, I could perhaps find a laugh within myself.”

 

True to Alexander’s words, Thomas had a rather prominent scowl on his face; his eyes as dark as the midnight he had come to embrace now narrowed with the very spite Alexander had so carelessly pointed out. Without another word, he pivoted around, so that he was no longer facing the starlight that he had wasted his last bits of night with. Moving quickly, with long, sure strides, he began to get as far away from Alexander as possible, and hoping that his memories would be doing much the same with thoughts of Alexander.

The fact that Alexander had known quite so much had more than startled Thomas- it had uprooted the tracks that his train of thought ran along. It made no sense at all, and yet at the same time it was all too real for him to want to remember. In fact, his first order of business one he arrived back inside his home would most definitely be to drown his mind in whiskey, the burn in the back of his throat scorching away the unwelcome thoughts of Alexander.

“Why do you hate the sunset?” Alexander called out, not moving forward even a half step as his voice rang out against the near-silence of the valley. His eyes were still wide open as he watched Thomas halt in his path. “Sunsets are ever so gorgeous. The colors, the tone of the world around you when you chase the sky, only to fail and know that you shall try again once more. How each and every star that appears in the sky with the further descent of the sun. Colors splattered across the atmosphere like modern art that refuses to be categorized as anything but positively brilliant. How could anyone stand to despise something such as sunsets?”

“I do not despise them, as that is quite the strong word,” Thomas replied against his better judgement. He knew that he should continue walking away, that Alexander was quite simply not worth his reply in any way, shape, or form. And yet, he still spoke, his voice hoarse from having been singing for hours on end just moments before. “However, despise is not too strong a word to describe my views on you, as a person.”

 

“The I suppose it is rather splendid indeed that I am starlight instead of a man,” Alexander countered, still not moving at all. Such lack of movement did not fool Thomas in the slightest, however, neither being made any motion to leave the other behind, or perhaps chase after them. “Don’t you think that makes this all so wonderful?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I do not think any such thing about you in the slightest,” Thomas spat, attempting to catch a glimpse of Alexander out of the corner of his eye, and upon failing in such endeavor, decided instead that turning around to gaze at him was just as acceptable a motion. “I do not find you wonderful, or splendid at all. In fact the only wonder that crosses my mind upon thoughts of you is wondering how it is possible you are not human, and yet can be quite so intolerable? I suppose you have an answer for that as well, as you seem to possess for most everything else I speak to you of, do you not? Or shall this be the very moment you prove me all too incorrect once more?”

Alexander sighed softly- although at this point it had become evident that he had no need for taking breaths of any sort- and shook his head slightly. “I fear,” He began, refusing to meet Thomas’s gaze, despite such a thing having been his original goal upon meeting the other. “That I have no clue why you think me to be intolerable, just as I haven’t the faintest idea why you think such a thing of me, when all I have done is state the truth. Is that not what you humans so desire? Truth above all else?”

“You clearly haven’t met very many human beings,” Thomas responded coldly, glaring at Alexander from a short distance away. “Very few of us truly wish for complete honesty amongst each other. Most others find it rather irksome, view it as a way to harm people and nothing more. A not inconsiderable amount of men have gone to great lengths to obscure the truth from those who wish for it most. Honesty is a plague upon the world, and to speak it is to curse those you hold dear.”

 

“I am afraid that I must disagree with you on that subject, as I find I have done with most other things you tell me of,” Alexander whispered, and despite the light volume and tone of his voice, the sound carried easily through the cold, night air. “Truth is the only way to find happiness. You are correct in that the truth has a very real possibility of harming others, but can you confidently claim that if we all knew the absolute truth, we would not find peace?”

“And that is where you are wrong,” Thomas interjected, eyes losing the frozen sharp gaze that had cut through Alexander’s will to look directly at him.. “Mankind has no desire for peace. Not really. We may claim the opposite, but it is well known amongst our peoples that men have a hunger for war, a thirst for blood, a craving for the sounds of cannons crackling off in the distance. A man that wastes a wish on such a thing as peace is no man at all.”

“Then I fear that I shall never understand humanity,” Alexander commented, more speaking aloud to himself than to Thomas at this particular moment. “Up in the sky, where I have spent the last centuries… We have no wars, and no peace. We take each other by the hand and lead the gentle glow into a waltz that falls in tune with the appearance of our iridescent moonlight. War is… Not a thing we have participated in before. But rest assured, we have witnessed our fair share. We have seen cities fall and have the dust that remains be burnt to ashes. As we watched over the Earth we were created to protect, we have witnessed bloodshed in amounts of which you could never so much as imagine. I know of war, yes. But I have never made her acquaintance.”

Thomas gazed curiously at Alexander, and after a moment of nothing more than the wind whipping past them and through the tall, yellow blades of grass, he took a step forward. “Then why do you still not understand why men crave war as they do? Surely you must have at least some semblance of an idea, after all you have witnessed. Haven’t you?”

“I… I have a few thoughts on the matter, although only one is likely to be accurate,” Alexander replied, lifting his gaze and revealing the fragile expression he wore on his face as he began to explain. “I… I believe that humanity so wishes for wars, because… Because you are all empty. Sure, you have that crimson blood which flows through your veins like the rivers of hell, but you do not glow. You, at this very moment, are shrouded in darkness, save for the light I have been creating for the both of us. If I for some reason ceased in my shining, we would be unable to view each other. You have no light inside you. None at all. Doesn’t that… Doesn’t such a thought as that upset you?”

“It has not before had the opportunity to cross my mind,” Thomas admitted, taking yet another step toward the starlight before him. “However, now that it has… I find that perhaps you are correct, although I am loathe to admit it. Men… It makes sense, that we are… Empty, as you seem to put it. Stars are not empty, and neither are the constellations they create when they are together-”

“We are not the same beings,” Alexander interrupted, raising his eyebrow in confusion at Thomas’s words. “Stars and constellations. We are quite different, and I find that I lack the knowledge as to why humans view us as so alike.”

“You are not?” Thomas asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he processed the information Alexander had supplied him with. “How is such a thing possible? Stars, when placed together, form constellations, if my memory serves correct.”

“Your memories are correct, but what they are of is quite wrong indeed,” Alexander pointed out, walking up to Thomas and grasping his hand gently, then holding them up. “See this? This is our hands, together. I am myself, and you are yourself. We are not one being at this moment, but instead remain as two separate ones. If I became the same entity as you, then perhaps we would be a constellation, such as the great fire-woman, Elizabeth.”

 

“I think it is your turn to be incorrect,” Thomas spoke softly, ignoring the heavy pounding of his heart in his chest at the slight contact with Alexander. “I know of almost every constellation, and there is no such one as the ‘great fire-woman Elizabeth’. Perhaps you meant to speak of a different one?”

Alexander shook his head in disbelief, muttering something under his breath about humans being unbearably ignorant in their beliefs. “The great fire-woman Elizabeth, or Eliza, as we starlight refer to her as, is the second eldest constellation in the night sky. Simply because you do not know the true names of constellations does not make me incorrect in any way, shape, or form, and you are a fool to think such a thing. Up here, right where those three stars align,” Alexander spoke, lifting their connected hands to point up at the sky. “That is the belt of our brilliantly brightly shining Eliza.”

“That is Orion, Alexander,” The taller being attempted to correct Alexander, however, upon realizing what Alexander’s scathing look meant, he decided that talking would not be a particularly wise idea.

“Humanity is far more lacking in intelligence than I had previously thought, it seems,” Alexander murmured, shaking his head in disbelief, before lifting his gaze once more and continuing to point upward. “Men have been the ones to name constellations, so they believe them to be men, as well. And although gender is of no concern to most of us that reside in the sky, rest assured that Eliza is a woman of many flames. She keeps watch over every fire set during the hours of night, and blows the embers away from the homes of creatures that reside near where the fire was set. Be careful not to insult her by referring to her as ‘Orion’. Once one gets on her bad side, there is not much you can do for redemption. Trust my word, I know this better than most anything, or anyone in the cosmos.”

Thomas tightened his grip on Alexander’s hand and shifted his gaze toward the being beside him. “You have spent much time in the sky, it seems. However, I believe that I see the first tinges of daylight beginning to emerge from behind the mountains, as the god Hercules pulls it across the skies.”

“Ah, Hercules is doing quite a splendid job of that- his is one of the few names that you humans managed to get right,” Alexander explained, his voice ever so slightly sounding… disappointed? “It is time I depart. After all, there are other parts of the world that require starlight, and I mustn’t be here while daylight shines.”

“Will I see you again tomorrow night?” Thomas inquired almost immediately after Alexander finished speaking. “I do not believe myself able to spend more than a day apart from the likes of you. You are… Your light seems to shine the brightest through the darkness that shrouds our world at moments such as these.”

Alexander smiled softly at Thomas, squeezing his hand gently and tracing the fingertips of his free hand along the man’s cheek. “I shall see you tomorrow night. But only if you promise me one thing.”

“Anything, my starlight,” Thomas answered, leaning closer to Alexander until their faces were mere centimeters apart. “Anything at all you wish for, I will do everything in my power to make sure you acquire it.”

“Promise me…” Alexander whispered, leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together gently. “Promise me that you will sing to me tomorrow night.”

“My melodies are yours, and only yours,” Thomas promised, closing his eyes to hide the tears that he felt forming in his eyes for the being that he had known for only a few hours and yet felt the unmistakable pull toward. So, without warning or a second thought, Alexander pulled Thomas the slightest bit toward himself, and sealed their lips in a chaste kiss.

It was unlike anything Thomas had ever felt before- the blending of darkness and light, with a soft crinkling of thin sheets of gold in the back of his mind. Each breath seemed as though it were slowed down to the speed with which ice melts in a temperature that is not quite warmth and yet all too far from a chill. Their eyes were closed, as the light shining from them would be enough to cause a thousand supernovas to set off in their hearts, right there next to the fireworks bursting in their minds.

Pulling away all too soon, Alexander wiped away the glimmering tear that had fallen from Thomas’s eyes.

“Do not be afraid, my darling-” Alexander spoke in a soft tone before being cut off by the very man he was speaking to.

“Thomas. My name is not darling, it is Thomas. I thought, since we just kissed…. I thought you should at the very least know my name, if I am to see you again,” Thomas whispered, their foreheads still touching and breaths warm against the other person’s cheeks in the cold not-quite-morning air.

“I already knew your name,” Alexander murmured, reaching up to hold Thomas’s face in his hands, showing off the delicately written black cursive word on his wrist. “I have known your name since the beginning of my existence. I simply wished to confirm that you are the voice that has sang to us. I love you. And if you love me as well, allow me to shine upon you tomorrow night.”

And with the gentle wiping away of the tear that fell down Thomas’s cheek, Alexander found his way back into the sky.

The next evening, Thomas sat in the exact same spot he had been in the previous night, and watched the sunset as he gently traced the lines that made up the soulmark on his wrist. After all, when one has a star instead of a name written on their wrist since birth, it would do no good to ignore it. And it would do no good to ignore just how brilliant the sunset this evening was, either.


End file.
